Papers by Mohd Sallehhudin Abd Aziz
Examining the Factors Mediating the Intended Washback of the English Language school-based Assessment: Pre-service ESL Teachers’ Accounts, 2019
This paper reports and discusses the quantitative findings of the perceived washback effects of t... more This paper reports and discusses the quantitative findings of the perceived washback effects of the English language school-based assessment on teachers at the lower-secondary level in Malaysia. It aims to do so from the point of view of a group of pre-service English language teachers so as to provide both pre-service and in-service teachers with a better idea of the roles they need to play and the decisions they need to make about washback. Test washback pre-service English language teachers were looked into. Specifically, the study looked into the extent to which the perspectives of the teacher-trainees in a teacher training college in the country were in line/in conflict with that of the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate's (MES). Drawing mainly on the data from the survey administered, it was found that these teachers perceived there studies reported in the literature, upon confirming the presence or absence of it, they have attempted to identify the factors within their respective contexts that appear to mediate the intended washback. Considering the recent implementation of the English language school-based assessment at the lower-secondary level intended to minimize the exam-orientedness within the Malaysian education system, the present study was therefore carried out to assess the mediation of factors at both macro and micro levels. The perspectives of a group of
This paper intends to investigate the readability level of the passages in the English paper of a... more This paper intends to investigate the readability level of the passages in the English paper of a national examination in Malaysia. In specific, this study seeks to identify the level of readability for reading passages of SPM English papers using readability formulas and judgement of reading experts. The readability of the English papers was analyzed using three readability formulas: Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog Index and Coh-Metrix L2 Reading Index. Five reading experts were also invited to evaluate the difficulty level of the reading texts. The readability scores of these reading texts revealed that these texts were graded as ‚fairly easy‛ texts as they fell within the range of 66.7-80.6 for Flesch Reading Ease, 6.9-10.1 for Gunning Fog Index. Results of Coh-Metrix L2 Reading Index also prove the readability level of the passages. Correspondingly, the content experts noted that the reading texts were interesting and generally easy to read texts. The analyses of the reading passages have shown that the texts chosen for the English papers were reasonably appropriate for the upper secondary school students.
This study mainly seeks to investigate English teachers and Ministry of Education officials' view... more This study mainly seeks to investigate English teachers and Ministry of Education officials' views on the implementation of CEFR in Malaysia. It also intends to explore the challenges encountered by the stakeholders in view of the adoption of CEFR onto Form 5 English syllabus and assessment. Data for this study were collected from questionnaires distributed to 331 English secondary school teachers and from in – depth interviews with two senior ministry officials. The findings revealed that most of the teachers had very limited knowledge, minimum exposure and low level of awareness about CEFR. Nevertheless, they were optimistic about the idea and believed that the framework is vital in order to improve the level of English proficiency of Malaysians. The officials in the ministry were also positive about the implementation plan despite the challenges and obstacles perceived. The teachers' resistance, lack of training and negative conception that most teachers have namely it would be difficult to incorporate CEFR in their teaching are some of the main challenges identified in this study. In conclusion, the adoption of CEFR in Malaysia is seen as obligatory but sufficient time should be given by the ministry to ensure that all stakeholders are fully prepared and familiar with the framework before it is extensively introduced and used in the country.
In today's modern world economy, there is always a competition among countries as a consequence o... more In today's modern world economy, there is always a competition among countries as a consequence of globalization. A salient feature of globalization is the adoption of neoliberalism – a modern contemporary economic ideology. Neoliberalism ideology is spreading fast around the globe including in South East Asia. The spread and adoption of English as the main medium of communication in conducting business, trade, commerce and various fields is the direct and indirect results of the impact of neoliberalism. This ideology has brought about many changes economically, socially and educationally to these countries. This paper intends to investigate the impact of neoliberalism especially on English as a medium of instruction in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. It will focus on the implementation of CEFR which is also directly related to the adoption of neoliberalism.
CEFR in Malaysia : Issues and Challenges Pp 874-882 of ICOSH Proceeding
The ability to write effectively in English is becoming much more important to ESL students, with... more The ability to write effectively in English is becoming much more important to ESL students, with writing instruction playing an increasing role in L2 language education. However, writing in English has always been a problem to ESL students as they usually view it as a difficult task. Developing an effective writing process that can be achieved through appropriate writing period and an effective writing tool could enable ESL students to become good writers. To fulfil this end, alternative assessment in the forms of portfolio and portfolio assessment are to be used in assisting ESL students to improve their English writing abilities. On that note, this study is focused on the use of portfolio and portfolio assessment in improving the English writing abilities of tertiary level students in a Malaysian university. The study will be based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory where a conceptual framework using Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) will be utilized. ZPD suggests that a learner could be greater with proper assistance from another competent teacher or educator. This qualitative study includes a relatively small number of participants enrolled in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. Data will be collected through interviews, observation and documents such as student reflections and student portfolio. Hopefully, the study will create more awareness to the English language educators about the alternative ways to improve the writing ability of ESL learners.
Sollsintec 2015 proceedings
The ability to write effectively in English is becoming much more important to ESL students, with... more The ability to write effectively in English is becoming much more important to ESL students, with writing instruction playing an increasing role in L2 language education. However, writing in English has always been a problem to ESL students as they usually view it as a difficult task. Developing an effective writing process that can be achieved through appropriate writing period and an effective writing tool could enable ESL students to become good writers. To fulfil this end, alternative assessment in the forms of portfolio and portfolio assessment are to be used in assisting ESL students to improve their English writing abilities. On that note, this study is focused on the use of portfolio and portfolio assessment in improving the English writing abilities of tertiary level students in a Malaysian university. The study will be based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory where a conceptual framework using Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) will be utilized. ZPD suggests that a learner could be greater with proper assistance from another competent teacher or educator. This qualitative study includes a relatively small number of participants enrolled in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. Data will be collected through interviews, observation and documents such as student reflections and student portfolio. Hopefully, the study will create more awareness to the English language educators about the alternative ways to improve the writing ability of ESL learners.
Abstract
ESP Needs analysis is the first step to design a language course which is more appropria... more Abstract
ESP Needs analysis is the first step to design a language course which is more appropriate and
accommodating in meeting learners’ needs. The purpose of
course development framework for foreign
faculties of National University of Malaysia.
– August 2009
hman, Mohd Sallehhudin Abd Aziz and Norizan
Abdul Razak
National University of Malaysia
at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Faculty
on-going doctoral research is
National University of Malaysia. She is the Vice President of
in Open Learning Journal, CALL EJ online and e
Malaysia. Her extensive research includes enhancing the employability of
centres in Malaysia.
National University of Malaysia
ESP.
this paper is to propose an ESP writing
postgraduates in the fields of science and technology
The theoretical aspects of the needs analysis are based on
Page 34
e-FLT
and Humanities,
. Malaysia. His main areas
of three
The Asian ESP Journal – August 2009
The Asian ESP Journal – Volume 5, Issue 2 Page 35
PSA (Present Situation Analysis) and TSA (Target Situation Analysis). Semi-structured interview and
document analysis, as the instruments for data collection, are used for the language needs analysis. The
samples include interviews of 10 foreign postgraduate students in the fields of science and technology of
these three faculties in the university. The samples of documents were four masters theses, written in
English by foreign postgraduates in the concerned faculties in the university. Document analysis is based
on the methodological framework of language analysis suggested by Ellis and Johnson (1994). This
paper reviews literature on some fundamental features of ESP, EAP, language needs analysis,
components of needs analysis and ESP writing skills. First, as part of investigating writing needs, the
paper looks into the areas of students’ difficulty in writing for academic purposes through interviews. In
addition, it looks into foreign students’ difficulty and differences’ in academic culture. It also focuses on
identifying foreign students’ specific writing difficulty and their writing needs required for ESP writing
purposes through document analysis. In fact, the findings of the needs analysis determine some important
writing tasks and skills for the proposed ESP writing course. In conclusion, the paper contributes to
introduce a framework for the ESP writing course development process, necessary for these foreign
postgraduates in the concerned fields of the three faculties in the university.
Abstract
Recognizing that mastery of English is associated with the leading edge of global scient... more Abstract
Recognizing that mastery of English is associated with the leading edge of global scientific and technological developments,
Malaysia, has taken the inevitable step to revert to English-medium instruction for science and technology related subjects at all
levels of the national education system. This re-emphasis on mastering the English language is a significant policy change which
has affected educators especially whose professional experiences have largely involved the use of Bahasa Melayu as the medium of
instruction. Thus the most immediate challenge posed by this policy change is to develop or in some cases to ‘reactivate’ the English
language skills of these educators to enable them to teach effectively using English as the medium of instruction. At the school level,
teachers of mathematics and science are receiving English language training for Mathematics and Science through the ETeMs
programme conducted by the Ministry of Education, nationwide. Meanwhile, at the tertiary institutions, public universities such as
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) tailor-make professional development programmes that aim to prepare lecturers trained
in Bahasa Melayu as well as those who have been lecturing in the national language to conduct their lectures and tutorials in
English by 2005. In light of these varied retraining needs, learning institutions (schools, colleges and universities) should subject
their instructors to an English language placement test to gauge a) their proficiency level in the academic language, b) their
proficiency level in instructional discourse. At UKM, the School of Language Studies and Linguistics developed and piloted a
prototype of such a placement test for the Centre for Academic Development. This prototype is an online assessment tool currently
used by the centre to place lecturers into appropriate language training modules. This paper therefore has a two-pronged aim. First
it describes the development of a language placement test for academicians; and second, it offers insights for the implementation of
an online assessment that can be conducted across the boundary of place and time for all, while highlighting the challenges posed by
current limitations in technology for language testing, as encountered by the research team. This paper is therefore significantly
relevant to the workshop as explorations in ICT applications in delivering tests and measuring language competency for continuing
GEMA: Online Journal of …, Jan 1, 2010
This article reports a study on test-taking strategies utilized by low and high proficiency femal... more This article reports a study on test-taking strategies utilized by low and high proficiency female participants in an open-ended reading comprehension test. Based on purposive sampling, 10 students were selected from one tertiary institution. The study seeks to explore the test-taking strategies employed by female students of two levels of proficiency. Verbal reports from these participants were obtained via the retrospective protocol and playback sessions. The data provided information on participants' thinking process and revealed how they arrived at their answers and the reasons for their choice of answers. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed qualitatively whereby patterns of strategies were identified and categorized. On the whole the results showed both levels employed almost the same total number of strategies, 24 and 22 for the high and low proficiency participants respectively. The conclusions were drawn upon the results of the data provided by limited number of participants and thus thrust aside the claim of representativeness in terms of test-taking strategy studies. However, the study allows a peek on the types of test-taking strategies utilized by students in the study which may also be employed by students in general.
Assessment of the Halal Status of Respiratory Pharmaceutical Products in a Hospital
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
ABSTRACT Respiratory pharmaceutical products are among the most commonly used products in the hos... more ABSTRACT Respiratory pharmaceutical products are among the most commonly used products in the hospital setting. However the halal status of these products is unknown and has never been investigated before. The objective of this study is to assess the status of these products at a hospital. Halal assessment was based on academic and other websites references. From 132 respiratory products that have been investigated, 11.4% are halal followed by 6.1% of them haram, 10.6% mushbooh and 72.0% are not known in terms of their halal status. All the haram medications are related to the presence of ethanol as the inactive ingredient. No information of inactive ingredients in medication leaflets is the most contributive factor leading to unknown halal status of the medications. In conclusion, cooperation between the government, pharmaceutical manufacturers, religious scholars and health care professionals is suggested in order to achieve a goal towards using halal medications.
Uncovering to what extent students assess themselves accurately is imperative in understanding cl... more Uncovering to what extent students assess themselves accurately is imperative in understanding classroom assessments. This study seeks to investigate how accurate are UniKL’s Faculty of engineering students at assessing their own essays as well as finding out their feedback with regard to the use of self-assessment in their course. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate the implementation of self-assessment method as one of the assessment tools in assessing students. A total of 144 diploma students of various engineering courses participated in this study. Both content analysis and a survey were employed for data collection. The results showed that most students’ tend to under rate themselves and a handful would over rate themselves. However, it was also found out that the levels of discrepancy between lecturers’ and students’ ratings were not too extreme. Based on the feedback, the students also perceived the use self-assessment as a tool for evaluation as something positive and meaningful experience.
PhD Thesis, 2003
The primary aim of this study was to design, construct and validate an English language test for ... more The primary aim of this study was to design, construct and validate an English language test for incoming law undergraduates in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The main purpose of the test was to provide an accurate assessment to assess the students' language ability to determine whether they have adequate ability to undertake studies in law. To achieve this objective, the proposed test had to go through several interrelated test development activities and stages. The first stage of test development involved designing
Procedia: Social and Behavioral Science 172 (2015) 770-777
This research attempts to investigate the extent of the use of Bahasa Melayu to teach English. Fi... more This research attempts to investigate the extent of the use of Bahasa Melayu to teach English. Fifty four inexperienced and experienced 'non-optionist' English teachers from three districts in Pahang took part in this study by responding to a set of questionnaire. These teachers were originally trained to teach other subjects but were given the task to teach the second language due to the lack of 'optionist' English teachers. The results of the findings show that there are differences on the extent of the use of Bahasa Melayu by inexperienced and experienced 'non-optionist' English teachers.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Jan 1, 2011
The issue of score reliability has always been a contentious one in the testing of language perfo... more The issue of score reliability has always been a contentious one in the testing of language performance because of the subjectivity involved in the assessment process. Assessment of a performance is usually carried out by human raters and studies have proved that there is a lack of consistency and accuracy in such judgments. This leads to a lack of standardization of marks raising concern about fairness to the students taking the course. One way of ensuring reliability is to mandate the use of a language proficiency rating scale. In addition to being a scoring tool, the rating scale also acts as the “de facto construct” (McNamara, 1996) and as a term of reference for stakeholders. Despite its importance, its development and use in institutional testing tend to be ad hoc (Fulcher 2008) and hardly ever researched. This paper will report on the preliminary findings of a study that investigates the practices relating to scoring reliability in the assessment of ESL writing. The ultimate aim of the study is to come up with guidelines for improving the reliability of scores awarded for writing assessment.
Proceeding of the Global Conference On Language Practice & Information Technology 2014 (GLIT2014), 2014
ABSTRACT
Uncovering to what extent students assess themselves accurately is imperative in unders... more ABSTRACT
Uncovering to what extent students assess themselves accurately is imperative in understanding
classroom assessments. This study seeks to investigate how accurate are UniKL’s Faculty of engineering
students at assessing their own essays as well as finding out their feedback with regard to the use of selfassessment
in their course. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate the
implementation of self-assessment method as one of the assessment tools in assessing students. A total
of 144 diploma students of various engineering courses participated in this study. Both content analysis
and a survey were employed for data collection. The results showed that most students’ tend to under
rate themselves and a handful would over rate themselves. However, it was also found out that the
levels of discrepancy between lecturers’ and students’ ratings were not too extreme. Based on the
feedback, the students also perceived the use self-assessment as a tool for evaluation as something
positive and meaningful experience.
Field of Research: Self-assessment, content analysis, students’ feedback.
Sollsintec Proceeding 2013, 2013
Abstract
This research investigated construction practices by teachers in a primary school. Five... more Abstract
This research investigated construction practices by teachers in a primary school. Five English language teachers were purposively sampled in order to gain an insight into their notions of the purpose of a test, test construction practices and the problems in testing at one primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data and it was triangulated with qualitative document analysis. Among the findings were teachers could construct good tests based on their purpose, but they lacked a certain degree of validity and reliability. Furthermore, from the participants’ view, they were unable to pilot a test or choose the format of a test in a priori of the test. After the test event, problems regarding rater reliability and incoherent results were also mentioned by the participants. The implications of this study to teachers were via emphasizing the need to reflect on their test construction practices, and to the experts to provide more training in test construction practices for the context of a primary school.
Keywords: test construction practices, purpose of a test, primary school, problems in testing.
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Papers by Mohd Sallehhudin Abd Aziz
ESP Needs analysis is the first step to design a language course which is more appropriate and
accommodating in meeting learners’ needs. The purpose of
course development framework for foreign
faculties of National University of Malaysia.
– August 2009
hman, Mohd Sallehhudin Abd Aziz and Norizan
Abdul Razak
National University of Malaysia
at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Faculty
on-going doctoral research is
National University of Malaysia. She is the Vice President of
in Open Learning Journal, CALL EJ online and e
Malaysia. Her extensive research includes enhancing the employability of
centres in Malaysia.
National University of Malaysia
ESP.
this paper is to propose an ESP writing
postgraduates in the fields of science and technology
The theoretical aspects of the needs analysis are based on
Page 34
e-FLT
and Humanities,
. Malaysia. His main areas
of three
The Asian ESP Journal – August 2009
The Asian ESP Journal – Volume 5, Issue 2 Page 35
PSA (Present Situation Analysis) and TSA (Target Situation Analysis). Semi-structured interview and
document analysis, as the instruments for data collection, are used for the language needs analysis. The
samples include interviews of 10 foreign postgraduate students in the fields of science and technology of
these three faculties in the university. The samples of documents were four masters theses, written in
English by foreign postgraduates in the concerned faculties in the university. Document analysis is based
on the methodological framework of language analysis suggested by Ellis and Johnson (1994). This
paper reviews literature on some fundamental features of ESP, EAP, language needs analysis,
components of needs analysis and ESP writing skills. First, as part of investigating writing needs, the
paper looks into the areas of students’ difficulty in writing for academic purposes through interviews. In
addition, it looks into foreign students’ difficulty and differences’ in academic culture. It also focuses on
identifying foreign students’ specific writing difficulty and their writing needs required for ESP writing
purposes through document analysis. In fact, the findings of the needs analysis determine some important
writing tasks and skills for the proposed ESP writing course. In conclusion, the paper contributes to
introduce a framework for the ESP writing course development process, necessary for these foreign
postgraduates in the concerned fields of the three faculties in the university.
Recognizing that mastery of English is associated with the leading edge of global scientific and technological developments,
Malaysia, has taken the inevitable step to revert to English-medium instruction for science and technology related subjects at all
levels of the national education system. This re-emphasis on mastering the English language is a significant policy change which
has affected educators especially whose professional experiences have largely involved the use of Bahasa Melayu as the medium of
instruction. Thus the most immediate challenge posed by this policy change is to develop or in some cases to ‘reactivate’ the English
language skills of these educators to enable them to teach effectively using English as the medium of instruction. At the school level,
teachers of mathematics and science are receiving English language training for Mathematics and Science through the ETeMs
programme conducted by the Ministry of Education, nationwide. Meanwhile, at the tertiary institutions, public universities such as
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) tailor-make professional development programmes that aim to prepare lecturers trained
in Bahasa Melayu as well as those who have been lecturing in the national language to conduct their lectures and tutorials in
English by 2005. In light of these varied retraining needs, learning institutions (schools, colleges and universities) should subject
their instructors to an English language placement test to gauge a) their proficiency level in the academic language, b) their
proficiency level in instructional discourse. At UKM, the School of Language Studies and Linguistics developed and piloted a
prototype of such a placement test for the Centre for Academic Development. This prototype is an online assessment tool currently
used by the centre to place lecturers into appropriate language training modules. This paper therefore has a two-pronged aim. First
it describes the development of a language placement test for academicians; and second, it offers insights for the implementation of
an online assessment that can be conducted across the boundary of place and time for all, while highlighting the challenges posed by
current limitations in technology for language testing, as encountered by the research team. This paper is therefore significantly
relevant to the workshop as explorations in ICT applications in delivering tests and measuring language competency for continuing
Uncovering to what extent students assess themselves accurately is imperative in understanding
classroom assessments. This study seeks to investigate how accurate are UniKL’s Faculty of engineering
students at assessing their own essays as well as finding out their feedback with regard to the use of selfassessment
in their course. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate the
implementation of self-assessment method as one of the assessment tools in assessing students. A total
of 144 diploma students of various engineering courses participated in this study. Both content analysis
and a survey were employed for data collection. The results showed that most students’ tend to under
rate themselves and a handful would over rate themselves. However, it was also found out that the
levels of discrepancy between lecturers’ and students’ ratings were not too extreme. Based on the
feedback, the students also perceived the use self-assessment as a tool for evaluation as something
positive and meaningful experience.
Field of Research: Self-assessment, content analysis, students’ feedback.
This research investigated construction practices by teachers in a primary school. Five English language teachers were purposively sampled in order to gain an insight into their notions of the purpose of a test, test construction practices and the problems in testing at one primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data and it was triangulated with qualitative document analysis. Among the findings were teachers could construct good tests based on their purpose, but they lacked a certain degree of validity and reliability. Furthermore, from the participants’ view, they were unable to pilot a test or choose the format of a test in a priori of the test. After the test event, problems regarding rater reliability and incoherent results were also mentioned by the participants. The implications of this study to teachers were via emphasizing the need to reflect on their test construction practices, and to the experts to provide more training in test construction practices for the context of a primary school.
Keywords: test construction practices, purpose of a test, primary school, problems in testing.